MMA Q&A: UFC star Rich Franklin goes all-out in co-ed sauna

VANCOUVER — On Saturday night, Ultimate Fighting Championship makes its Canadian west-coast debut with UFC 115 at GM Place in Vancouver. In the main event, UFC legends square off when Chuck Liddell takes on Rich Franklin. Taking a break from his preparations, Franklin went 1-on-1 with Canwest MMA reporter Dave Deibert, discussing the 2008 Paper-Rock-Scissors world championship, life as a teacher versus being a UFC star, and cutting weight in a co-ed naked sauna in Germany . . .

DEIBERT: What was tougher — coming in as a late substitute coach for Tito Ortiz in this season of The Ultimate Fighter or being a substitute teacher?

FRANKLIN: The thing is, I was a full-time (math) teacher. The only time I ever substituted was when I substituted within my own high school. I had to substitute one day for an art class. Man, I should have gone to college to be an art teacher. That’s about the easiest job ever. You just sit there and you say, ‘OK, today we’re gong to make clay pots.’ Then they’re just sitting there working the whole time, making clay pots. And, of course, that takes several weeks. I don’t know what (art teachers) do. I don’t know if they just sit around and read the paper because grading isn’t that hard either. You just kind of look at the pot, like, ‘I think that’s a C,’ or, ‘That has a C-plus all over it.’ So I’d say probably substitute teacher was easier for me.

DEIBERT: Name one thing about teaching that you enjoyed more than being an MMA fighter.

FRANKLIN: I didn’t get punched in the face.

DEIBERT: Your nickname — ‘Ace’ — comes from your resemblance to Jim Carrey. Name one other trait you wish you shared with him.

FRANKLIN: His bankroll. I think he makes a little more per movie than I make per fight.

DEIBERT: You were credited as one of the writers of The Idiot’s Guide to Ultimate Fighting. What ‘idiot’s guide’ do you desperately need?

FRANKLIN: Since I’ve become a home owner, I’m a little more of a handyman than what I used to be. But if I could master the idiot’s guide to carpentry or something like that, that would be really good for me. My oldest brother is the master carpenter, plumber, mechanic. He’s the kind of guy who can do pretty much anything.

DEIBERT: At the 2008 Paper-Rock-Scissors national championships, Wanderlei Silva beat you in the decisive round with scissors cutting paper. Did beating him at UFC 99 make up for that loss or does it still haunt you?

FRANKLIN: No, no. I beat him in the paper-rock-scissors.

DEIBERT: I got that wrong. You beat him?

FRANKLIN: Of course.

DEIBERT: So you’re 2-0 against him.

FRANKLIN: Exactly. But one of them is the important one, and that’s the paper-rock-scissors (laughs). We go to the competition. It’s at Mandalay Bay (in Las Vegas). We’re just doing a little exhibition but this is, like, a $50,000 tournament. These guys aren’t a joke. There’s a sanctioned body. There’s referees for this stuff. These guys take this crap seriously. It’s so funny because before it began, Wanderlei had never played paper-rock-scissors in his life before. So I was backstage, in broken Portuguese, trying to explain how to play paper-rock-scissors the best I could. When we came out, in broken English he tried to tell everybody he was a world champion back in Brazil (laughs).

DEIBERT: You’ve been all over the world. Tell me your most memorable travel adventure that didn’t take place in the ring?

FRANKLIN: Brazil was one of the first places I’ve been to where the people had more of that care-free attitude, very friendly, the weather’s beautiful all year around. It was just great. On the flipside of that, I got to go (on a) tour for the troops. When I look back, I’ve been over the Iraqi desert in Black Hawks, I got to shoot from Black Hawks, I’ve seen oil wells burning, I’ve felt the reverberations of IEDs exploding, I’ve been on oil platforms in the Persian Gulf. It’s trips like being in Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, the Persian Gulf, that I really cherish. Going to Iraq, you can’t spend your money to go there. ‘Let me take a vacation this holiday. I think I’m going to go to Bahrain.’ It’s just not one of those places you go. This is an experience in life most people would not get to experience.

DEIBERT: Following a fight, how much sympathy are you able to milk out of your wife, Beth?

FRANKLIN: There is no sympathy (laughs). I don’t think, in general, people realize. You’ve been kicked in the leg 37 times and your quad isn’t working properly and your ankle is swollen to the size of a balloon and you have a black eye. They don’t think about that kind of stuff. ‘Alright, we’re going to go grab dinner? You wanna go?’ ‘Does it look like a wanna go?’ (laughs). The one time I got sympathy form people was after the (Dan) Henderson fight when I got poked in the eye (and was sidelined for four months). That was the one time, my friends were sitting there, like, ‘Yeah, that doesn’t look good buddy.’

DEIBERT: What’s the best practical joke you’ve played in the locker room or the best one someone’s played on you?

FRANKLIN: That’s all we do. I could go on for days. But since you brought up locker rooms, one of the most shocking moments I’ve ever had in the locker room was when I fought in Germany. The sauna in Germany is co-ed naked. The showers are co-ed naked. I was cutting weight. I walk out of the steam room one day, cutting weight, and there’s three girls standing there naked, showering. And I’m trying to play it cool, like that’s just normal for you because it’s normal for them. They’re like ‘Hello.’ You’re trying not to stare, like they’re just one of the guys and you’re not going to stare at them. That was a pretty weird thing to walk out on. We knew, they told us, about the co-ed naked locker rooms. It said on the sign: do not get in the sauna with clothing on. We’re cutting weight, didn’t really see the girls. Then one day, bam! They’re standing there. I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ (laughs)

ddeibert@sp.canwest.com

Twitter.com/davedeibert

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